Put this on your calendar: next Thursday, September 20th, at 11:18 AM PDT, there will be the first nationwide "Presidential Alert" cell phone test. You can't silence these. Plan accordingly.
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are you running non-stock firmware?
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Yes, Lineage OS. If vendor-shipped Android lacks these options that's yet another reason it's awful...
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both stock android and ios have settings to disable government and amber alerts, but there's no way to disable presidential alerts on any phone and it's illegal to do so
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This is why OS/software should not come with/from device vendors but be FOSS outside of regulatory control.
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i'm not sure i understand- i love open source too, but unblockable emergency communications have existed for decades and the presidential alert system is simply the most modern version of this. it's not really about open vs closed code
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if they want unblockable alert system why don't they just put usual sirens in the city
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Because half the people that hear a siren keep on trucking. The other half go outside to see what might be happening. Text can provide a lot more info than a siren.
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Of course emergency communication channels are useful. Enforcing that government or any party have access to push them through your device with no way to turn them off is not so nice, especially under an administration with no respect for unwritten or even written norms.
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I wouldn’t disable it permanently. If a presidential alert ever goes out, you’re going to want to know. It’s basically letting you know something absolutely catastrophic is happening, like a nuclear strike or a military invasion
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I wouldn't preemptively, but if he started using it as a propaganda channel like he does Twitter? Inability to turn that off could be...problematic.
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Wouldn’t bet on it, this system is almost a decade old. If it was gonna be misused, it would have been done by now. Also, I don’t think they’re alerts the President personally issues, so much as they are ones he would approve. But no instance has ever required one, so who knows
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